{"id":776,"date":"2015-03-23T08:09:17","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T12:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/?p=776"},"modified":"2015-03-23T08:09:17","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T12:09:17","slug":"the-difference-between-open-and-closed-ended-street-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/the-difference-between-open-and-closed-ended-street-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"The Difference Between Open And Closed Ended Street Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

The article below is an explanation why I don’t give my photographs interesting titles anymore.\u00a0 I feel that giving a title to a photograph takes away from the viewers experience.\u00a0 You can read on to see why.<\/p>\n

There are arguably two types of photographs in Street Photography; the ones that tell a definitive story and those that are open for interpretation.\u00a0 For example, if I showed you a photograph of a woman walking her dog with an interesting shadow you’d be looking at a fairly definitive shot, a shot that doesn’t invoke much imagination.\u00a0 An open-ended photograph, on the other hand, leaves the viewer wondering what in the world is going on.\u00a0 When someone looks at an open-ended photograph they are able to put themselves into that situation and interpret the scene based on their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences.\u00a0 I find open-ended photographs to be a far more interesting and engaging experience for myself.<\/p>\n

\"0315_untitled_036\"<\/a>If you look closely you can see the man coming out of the door has a smile on his face, like someone just told him a joke.\u00a0 The other man’s face can’t be seen, he is quickly walking away as if he needs to be someone five minutes ago.\u00a0 What was so funny?\u00a0 Where does the man in the hat need to be?<\/p>\n

\"0315_untitled_188\"<\/a>Why is this little girl sitting in the shop window?\u00a0 What does she think of having her photo taken?\u00a0 Photographs like these, where someone is someplace you would not expect to see them invokes the imagination.\u00a0 Had I titled this image Girl Waits In Window While Mother Talks the mystery would be gone, you’d know exactly what was happening and why…\u00a0 Your interest would wane.<\/p>\n

Open and closed ended photographs could be compared to open and closed end questions.\u00a0 A closed end question is simply a question that can be answered with a concise yes or no.\u00a0 An open-ended question can be answered in any number of ways, it’s open to interpretation.\u00a0 Does that make sense?\u00a0 (Closed)\u00a0 What do you think of that?\u00a0 (Open).<\/p>\n

\"16825480032_f166fdb299_o\"<\/a>What is going on here?\u00a0 Is she marching for some sort of cause?\u00a0 Is she simply leading a group of tourists and the umbrella is what helps them find her?\u00a0 Is she the daughter of Mary Poppins?\u00a0 The photograph makes the viewer stop and think for a minute.\u00a0 The truth about the photograph is I have no idea what she is doing, it was a split second between when I saw her and when I pulled my camera up to take the shot.<\/p>\n

\"0315_untitled_083-2\"<\/a>This is an example of a more closed end photograph.\u00a0 We can see exactly what is going on, the only thing that is a question is what is she thinking at the moment she saw me take her photograph.\u00a0 Spoiler alert; she was actually a great sport.\u00a0 She smiled, laughed, and said hello.\u00a0 Closed ended photograph is not synonymous with uninteresting…\u00a0 They can be quite engaging as well.<\/p>\n

\"0315_untitled_071\"<\/a>As a sort of side not, when you obscure a persons face you create a kind of mystery.\u00a0 Without being able to see ones expression or facial features the viewer is left to imagine what the person looks like and how they are feeling.\u00a0 This type of photograph would also be considered open-ended.<\/p>\n

The photograph below is a good example of a closed ended photograph, something that takes very little interpretation.\u00a0 The image is like many other images that have been taken before it, of a subject walking towards the camera in the city.\u00a0 There is still interest in the fashionable clothing he is wearing and the fact that he is carrying a purse, something that’s out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n

\"0315_untitled_189\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I think creating open-ended photographs, photographs that leave room to be interpreted and imagined, are more difficult but ultimately more interesting that a closed end photograph.\u00a0 The primary reason I don’t give interesting titles to my images is that if I do create an open ended photograph the title can influence the interpretation the viewer has, thus taking the imagination out of it.\u00a0 At the end of the day, any image that gets viewers to engage it is a successful image.<\/p>\n

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What are your thoughts on open and closed end photographs?\u00a0 Leave a comment below.\u00a0 You can visit us on Facebook by clicking here<\/a>.\u00a0 Follow DecisiveShot by entering your email in the box on the right and clicking Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The article below is an explanation why I don’t give my photographs interesting titles anymore.\u00a0 I feel that giving a title to a photograph…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[246,206,210,247,245,128,34,244],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/decisiveshot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16550250838_3536b9d130_o.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5xbS3-cw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":786,"href":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions\/786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decisiveshot.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}